How much do you spend each Month?

jor3000

Folks,

I’ve got a big question regarding monthly spending – I think that my household spending is enormous, but don’t have any reference point. I’ve outlined my basic numbers below – anyone care to share their numbers / thoughts?

My goal is to really understand what the monthly cost of living is for a “normal” family, and understand where I can cut back to stretch a decreasing income further.


The Demographics, etc –

- Single Income Family – self-employed
- 4 kids, all in teenage years with the eldest First Year in College – living at home.
- Mortgage – call it 1200 per month right now
- 2 cars


Total Monthly Spend averaged over the past 12 months = €11000

Main Monthly Costs that I’m coming up with right now

- Mortgage – 1200
- Food – 1400
- Petrol – 500
- Health Insurance – 150
- Life Assurances – 300
- Critical Illness Cover – 350
- College Fees – 833 (10k per year)
- Phones – 200
- Sky – 75
- Weekly Take Away - 50


I calculated the overall monthly spend as follows:
Note exactly how much net Income comes into the bank accounts each month.
Note the closing balance of every bank and credit card account on the last day of each month – this then becomes the opening balance for the 1st of the next month.
By simply calculating how each account changed over the month and adding in the net income you can get an exact number on your monthly spend each month – and you only need to input 4 or 5 numbers to get to it.

JOR

TarfHead

2 cars

€ 500 pm in petrol

Are you sure, or are you doing significant driving ?

Flamed Diving

Wrong forum.

jor3000

TarfHead wrote: »

Are you sure, or are you doing significant driving ?

Self-Employed - Significant Driving!

jor3000

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Wrong forum.

Apologies if that is the case - can you advise where should I post this?

Flamed Diving

One of those forums under 'Biz' to the top-left, I think.

Time Magazine

Moved from Economics to what I think is the most-suited forum.

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Wrong forum.

Use the Report Post function please, we might miss it otherwise.

Lizzykins

We're in much the same position-4 kids,one in college. One and a half incomes as I only work part-time.

Mortgage -350
Life Ins- 50
Health Ins 100-kids are not covered.
Phone-mobile and lineline-80
Petrol for 2 cars-100
Food-1400
NTL-30

That's only off the top of my head. Food costs are horrendous. Thank God our mortgage is small and we only have a couple of small credit union loans. We manage to save a small bit in the credit union too.

Increased college reg fee will kill us. Plus decrease in income from levies. We will manage ok if we both keep our jobs and they look safe in the medium term.
Hard to know where you could cut back OP though I do see you have large insurance bills. Prob if you are self employed it's a must.

oldyouth

Jaysus, how can you spend that a month and more importantly, how do you earn that a month. I'm going to leave out the mortgage, 'cos after 25 years the bugger is nearly gone

Family Health Insurance €150
Food €750 (usual supermarket per week, all meat from a quality butcher and then the bread, milk etc from the petrol station)
Petrol €100 (2 cars)
Mobiles €50 (2 phones)
Rent €410 (son in college in Dublin who worked all summer and pays his expenses)
Sky €60
Wife's Gym €30
My Gym €40
Car/House Insurance €80 (in the business, so I get deals)
Heating Oil €100
Electricity €100
Phone/Internet €30
Car Tax average €75 (bloody '99 Audi)
Pub Drink €100

I live well, buy what I need and some of what I want.

€4,200 per year for critical illness cover, are you mad? And how can you spend nearly €50 a day on food, regardless of the size of your family

rameire

2 adults, 1 dog. no kids.

Health Insurance €77
Food €400 includes alcohol for home drinking
Petrol €180 (1 motorbike, car is company car)
Mobiles €40 (2 phones)
Sky €22.50
bike and house insurance €70
Gas €60
Electricity €60
Phone/Internet €55
Bike Tax €20
Pub Drink €10
Mortgage €800
Life Insurance €80 (includes critical illness)
Health Insurance €78

Trampas

2 of us

Health Insurance €100
Food €200 (Aldi or Lidl)
Petrol €70 (2 cars)
Mobiles €40 (2 phones)
Sky €60
2 Cars/House Insurance €70 (in the business, so I get deals)
Gas €50 on avg goes up and down with weather
Electricity €100
Phone/Internet €50
Car Tax average €30 (bloody '99 Audi)
Mortgage €1000 pm

samhail

If you are self-employed i assume you are putting a bit of that through your company (or have you registered)
probably could be making a bit of saving

Toots

Interesting thread. Unfortunately seeing as this forum is more for discussions and advice on Banking products, I don't think it belongs here, so I'm moving it to After Hours.

AH mods, apologies if that's the wrong forum.

My name is URL

Depends on the quality of prostitute available

srsly though - about 900 euro total outgoing per month for just me and my cat & dog

edit: OP you're spending alot on personal insurance, can those premiums not be consolidated?

Graham_B18C

jor3000 wrote: »

College Fees – 833 (10k per year)

What college is that?! Christ, that's a lorra money. I paid 800 quid a year when I was in college, not that long ago

Super-Rush

Insurance 52

Broadband 60

Loans 92

Petrol 200-300

Food 500

Sky 60

Phone 100

Other 600-700

mickdw

Lizzykins wrote: »

Petrol for 2 cars-100

Petrol for 2 cars for a month. Do you drive at all? I spend 80/week on one car.

SV

My monthly outgoings..

rent/housekeeping - 250
food - 200
petrol - 200(1 car)

and I'm done.

consultech

Grahamo999 wrote: »

What college is that?! Christ, that's a lorra money. I paid 800 quid a year when I was in college, not that long ago

I think the fees in the University of Insufficient Leaving Cert points are about €10k per year.

Wish my mommy and doddy paid my fees when I was in college; I'm an independent adult as a result though so all's well ...

consultech

consultech wrote: »

I think the fees in the University of Insufficient Leaving Cert points are about €10k per year.

Wish my mommy and doddy paid my fees when I was in college; I'm an independent adult as a result though so all's well ...

Yep......I can't imagine how a student living at home needs nearly a grand a month of parents' money. That's insane. The food bill is insane as well, HOW on earth can anyone spend that much? My parents only used to spend about 600-700 a month when all of us lived at home and they don't even shop in Aldi or Lidl. Some serious savings can surely be made there.

Graham_B18C

consultech wrote: »

I think the fees in the University of Insufficient Leaving Cert points are about €10k per year.

Wish my mommy and doddy paid my fees when I was in college; I'm an independent adult as a result though so all's well ...

Enen the private colleges aint that much, like Griffith, DBS or ACD are about 4000 or 5000 a year, ten grand a year for college is insane money.

6ix

Hmmm, this has me thinking so I'll chip in from a slightly different perspective. Details:

Single guy, mid 20's, renting (sharing) in Dublin 6, no kids etc. The bills quoted refer to my portion only, I'm sharing with 2 others, and we split them.

Food €200
Rent €460
Electricity €30
Gas €40
TV €20
Broadband €50 (I'm the sole user - have to sort this!)
Car insurance €70
Car Tax €30
Petrol €200
Mobile €35
Road Tolls €20

Then there's all the other stuff like going out, restaurants, going to gigs/shows, buying clothes which vary from month to month, but certainly add up to quite a bit. I do manage to save a small bit but with wages decreasing due to the levies etc, that's becoming harder.

The numbers for 3/4 kid households are frightening!

TaxiManMartin

jor3000 wrote: »

Apologies if that is the case - can you advise where should I post this?

Try here.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

Leprachaun

About 15 thousand a month I'd say.

useful_contacts

Rent 540
Food 100 (we dont eat much it seems:)
partners gym 60
tv and internet 45

all i can think of atm

Trampas

mickdw wrote: »

Petrol for 2 cars for a month. Do you drive at all? I spend 80/week on one car.

You must drive from one end of the country to the other every week.

old boy

the old girl has moved from lidil/aldi to dunnes, she claims she is saving a tenner a week. so now my weekly bottle of scotch from lidil is only costing roughly euro 6.40,

Lilyblue

Per month for 2 Adults, 2 kids, 2 cars, 2 incomes /*touches wood

Mortgage 2200
Loans 530
Petrol 300
Life Assurance 90
Health Insurance 145
Car Insurance 80
Sky 50
Food & sundries 400
Mobile phones 40
School expenses ie bus etc.. 100
Then ESB, Bord Gais & Internet bills

cooperguy

OP how do you spend €200 on phone bills!

Flamed Diving

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Wrong forum.

Wrong message board tbh, askaboutmoney may be more appropiate.

gaeilgegrinds

Own house, have lodger, also bf but I'll write just my own portion of bills.

Mortgage-800-120 tax relief- 280 rent= 400 per month.
Car-50 petrol, also put 60 aside for insurance and tax.
Vivas health-50 per month.
Phone-talk a lot-100.
House insurance-20.
Broadband-30.
Clothes-100.
Pill, cosmetics etc-30.
One beauty treat, hair or something-60.
Waxing- 30- 15 times 2.
Food-150.
Nights out- thanks to training v.little drink-120.
E.S.B.-20.
Bins-20.

So...1240...hmm...

BeachBum25

I got about 3 sentences into the original post and fell asleep. I'm awake now... wondering what the heck this has to do with "After Hours"???

sunnyside

oldyouth wrote: »

€4,200 per year for critical illness cover, are you mad? And how can you spend nearly €50 a day on food, regardless of the size of your family

Agreed, OP needs to reduce food costs. A lot of things are missing off the OP's list, gas/oil, electricity, tv licence, holidays, christmas, hairdresser/beauty treatments/clothes. Do you have 4 teenage girls and a wife all getting their hair done at the hairdressers? Pocket money for the children. I'd say there are loads of places money is being spent that you haven't noticed.

Grahamo999 wrote: »

Enen the private colleges aint that much, like Griffith, DBS or ACD are about 4000 or 5000 a year, ten grand a year for college is insane money.

The OP mentions 4 children, maybe the college fee covers education for the ones still in school too. More than one person in a Bruce college type place and the bills would be massive.

Eoin

Your food bill seems expensive, and a weekly takeaway could be cut down easily?

If you're self employed then you shouldn't be including all of the fuel bill in your family expenses. I think you can claim VAT back on diesel if it's for work, and if you could get away with using a commercial vehicle (provided your other car can take the whole family if needed) then your road tax will be cheap as well.

If that €200 includes the kids' mobile phone bills, then tell them to go out and get a part time job or something. If it's part of the self employed expenses, then you really need to separate your work bills from your family bills.

auditek923

myself working ,wife unemployed,5yr old son per month

mortgage 1200
car repayment 200
car ins 35
petrol 50
credit union loan 400
3 credit cards 125
gas 75
esb 100
phones 70
pub 30
food 200
weekly takeaways 100

toiletduck

How much money do you spend per month?

I'd tot up the figures except I'm afraid of knowing what percentage of my budget goes on booze and fags.

Ignorance ftw.

Eglinton

jor3000 wrote: »

Mortgage – call it 1200 per month right now

Total Monthly Spend averaged over the past 12 months = €11000

Main Monthly Costs that I’m coming up with right now

Mortgage – 1200
Food – 1400
Petrol – 500
Health Insurance – 150
Life Assurances – 300
Critical Illness Cover – 350
College Fees – 833 (10k per year)
Phones – 200
Sky – 75
Weekly Take Away - 50


I calculated the overall monthly spend as follows:
Note exactly how much netIncomecomes into the bank accounts each month.
Note the closing balance of every bank and credit card account on the last day of each month – this then becomes the opening balance for the 1st of the next month.
By simply calculating how each account changed over the month and adding in the net income you can get an exact number on your monthly spend each month – and you only need to input 4 or 5 numbers to get to it.

jo3000, your monthly costs are only totaling €5058. How are you getting 11K? If you're adding together the balance of your bank account at the end of each month then you are consistantly summing the same money over and over. Double/treble counting if you follow. Or perhaps I'm missing something here?

trailerparkboy

lets see:
Food:120 per month
Rent: 76 per month
drink/pub: 500 per month
Internet: 25 per month

veryangryman

trailerparkboy wrote: »

lets see:
Food:120 per month
Rent: 76 per month
drink/pub: 500 per month
Internet: 25 per month

Assume your co-habiting with the rent part. Youd barely get a weeks rent in most places for that

As for the alcohol... Wow. That gives me mixed emotions... Half of me thinks "Wahey you go" and the other half is reminded of what a waste of money the stuff is

But so is Mortgage Interest so i think were even there Mack :pac:

IvyTheTerrible

A couple living together, he's a student,

Food: 300
Rent: 300
Loan: 400
Internet/TV/Phone: 30
Electricity: 40
Gas: 50
Entertainment/Misc: 400

Not too bad (but pay is much lower here than in ireland so I do have to be careful). Don't have to pay health insurance as that all comes out of my pay. Only bill I am worried about is water because it's metered and heavily charged, but you only get a bill once a year.

trailerparkboy

veryangryman wrote: »

Assume your co-habiting with the rent part. Youd barely get a weeks rent in most places for that

As for the alcohol... Wow. That gives me mixed emotions... Half of me thinks "Wahey you go" and the other half is reminded of what a waste of money the stuff is

But so is Mortgage Interest so i think were even there Mack :pac:

Oh im on the dole and get rent allowance so its not 2 bad, but its a real struggle sometimes espically if i have a flutter on the horses:D

jaybee747

Heres mine, Married,single income, 3 young kids.
Per month:
Mortgage 1100
ESB 100
NTL 25
Eircom 55
Mobiles(2) 60
Cars(2) 390
Diesel/petrol 280/200
Personal loans/credit cards 800
Food 500
School bus 80
Heating oil averages 100 a month

I think thats it covered, i hope so, a little depressing when you stick it down in writing.

Pay insurances life/motor/home yearly, car tax yearly.bins yearly

trailerparkboy

jaybee747 wrote: »

Heres mine, Married,single income, 3 young kids.
Per month:
Mortgage 1100
ESB 100
NTL 25
Eircom 55
Mobiles(2) 60
Cars(2) 390
Diesel/petrol 280/200
Personal loans/credit cards 800
Food 500
School bus 80
Heating oil averages 100 a month

I think thats it covered, i hope so, a little depressing when you stick it down in writing.

Pay insurances life/motor/home yearly, car tax yearly.bins yearly

Holy smokes man that a lot, u must me on at least 900 a week to afford all that.

helimachoptor

2 of us.. with the GFs sister and her boyfriend the odd night..

950 Mortgage
Car 400 (only 3 months of it left!)
Raod tax 50
Broadband 40
Gas 35
ESB 50
Food 400 (at most)
Petrol 125
NTL 50
Life assurance 35
Both have company phones
Both have life insurance with company

We both keep about 4-500 casual money each per month and we save quite a bit too.

dlambirl

A couple, one unemployed the other soon to be on 3 days a week...

Mortgage: €700
Car loan: €250
Diesel: €150
Phone: Mine - €20, OH's - €100
Car Insurance: €115
House Insurance: €30
Medicines: €20
Beauty Treatments: €20
Food: €400
Alcohol : €100
Cigarettes: €200
Bins: €10
ESB: €100
Heating (Oil and Solid Fuel): €150
Sky: €25

Svalbard

consultech wrote: »

I think the fees in the University of Insufficient Leaving Cert points are about €10k per year.

Wish my mommy and doddy paid my fees when I was in college; I'm an independent adult as a result though so all's well ...

Or maybe she means the cost of keeping a child in college for a year (rent, books, fees, subsistence). I worked for 4 years during college, but I still needed my parents to help with expenses. I only wish I had it as tough as you, consultech, then perhaps I might be a well-rounded, happy person too. Oh wait....

So......

Single guy, no pets

Rent 600
Loan repayments 550
Food 200
Electricity 25
Phone 55
Union membership 55
Car insurance 99
Petrol 150

No TV subscription or other bills (mwahahah!)

1734 in expected expenditure.
Lets say another 150 in unexpected expenditure (I'm not too flash with the cash, obviously)

1884 per month.

I should be saving quite a bit at that rate......might need to do my sums again.

useful_contacts

useful_contacts wrote: »

Rent 540
Food 100 (we dont eat much it seems:)
partners gym 60
tv and internet 45

all i can think of atm

Oh and add in 10e a month for pet insurance
and 200 a month on alcohol(for the 2 of us)

jor3000

A huge thanks for all of the replies - I can see that I must have many areas where savings can be made - and the various lists provided by people point out where I can provide more details regarding bills etc. I'll dig out some more of the details over the coming weekend and see how close I can get to bridging the gap between the ~5k detail provided on the initial post and the 11k that's going out the door each month.


.......... thought the post would get a fair response though - not many people really know how much is spent each month. Food for thought.

Laughed a bit at the changing forums though --- felt like an itinerant there for a while!

powerzjim

My name is URL wrote: »

Depends on the quality of prostitute available

srsly though - about 900 euro total outgoing per month for just me and my cat & dog

edit: OP you're spending alot on personal insurance, can those premiums not be consolidated?

lol

BeatNikDub

Single girl, living with 2 friends

Rent - 520
Phone - 75
Internet - 50
General Bills - about 50 altogether per month (AA, bins, leccy, chorus and gas)
Food - 300
Car Loan - 140
Credit card - 200
Car Insurance - 75
Doctors - 320 (minimum, can be anything up to 500)
Prescriptions - 65

And thats all before a few nights out, no wonder im left penniless every month! lol

veryangryman

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Single girl, living with 2 friends

Phone - 75

Hundred quid says your with Vodafone.

God id struggle to use that amount of credit with my own operator even if i tried